What is a Touchback in Football - How Many Yards is a Touchback? | TSR (2024)

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What is a touchback in football? ›

touch·​back ˈtəch-ˌbak. : a situation in football in which the ball is down behind the goal line after a kick or intercepted forward pass after which it is put in play by the team defending the goal on its own 20-yard line compare safety.

The spot is the 25-yard line in both college and professional football on kickoffs and free kicks after a safety, with the NCAA having changed from the 20 in 2012 and the NFL making the same change in 2018.

How Many Yards is a Touchback? When a team receives a touchback, the ball is placed at the 25-yard line to start the next drive. Historically, football teams received the ball at their 20-yard line. However, in 2012, the NCAA adopted a rule change that moved the touchback starting position five yards.

What makes a touchback? If a kicked ball, either as a result of a punt, kickoff or missed field goal, touches the ground in the opposing team's end zone, rolls out of the back-end zone or touches the goal post, the play is ruled a touchback and the ball will be spotted at the 25-yard line.

Despite the trend in kicker improvement, in 2021, following two consecutive years of record highs, the rate of touchbacks on kickoffs dropped to 57%.

From the NFL Rulebook, “A touchback in football is when the ball becomes dead on or behind the goal line a team is defending, provided that the impetus comes from an opponent and that it is not a touchdown or an incomplete pass.” The ball is automatically reset at the 25-yard line for the offense.

A touchback results in offensive possession at their 25-yard line while a safety scores one or two points for the opposing team.

In an attempt to reduce the frequency of kick returns—and by extension cut down on injuries—the NFL decided in the offseason to put the ball on the 25-yard line after a touchback. The rationale, of course, was that the extra five yards might cause returners to gamble less often on kicks that go into the end zone.

The NFL moved the touchback to the 25-yard line in 2016.

Apparently, the NFL endorses heel discrimination. The NFL has confirmed via email that the official rule book merely says that a player must get two feet in bounds, with no elaboration or explanation regarding the ability of a player to make a catch while only ever getting a toe or the top of the foot down.

Why did they change the touchback rule? ›

The idea was to reduce the number of kickoff returns, and therefore the number of traumatic injuries that occur on a play in which high-speed collisions occur regularly. The thinking was a receiving team was more likely to take a touchback on a kick into the end zone knowing the ball would be spotted at the 25.

Free Kick Crosses Goal Line. It is a touchback, if a free kick: is not touched by the receiving team, and the ball touches the ground in the end zone.

On one hand you have a touchback -- the team with the football gets an offensive possession started at their own 25-yard line. On the other hand, a safety -- the team with the football not only loses possession of the football altogether, but the opposite team scores 2 points.

In gridiron football, the red zone is the area of the field between the 20-yard line and the goal line.

Touchdown: 6 points. Field Goal: 3 points. Safety: 2 points. Try after touchdown: 1 point (Field Goal or Safety) or 2 points (Touchdown)

The Super Bowl is a different animal. Over the last 20 years, only two opening kickoffs have produced a touchback. Eighteen of the last 20 opening kickoffs have been returned. Currently at BetMGM, you can get +115 odds on the opening kickoff to produce a return.

“There isn't normally a touchback on the opening kickoff because the ball is a brand new ball…that ball goes immediately to the Hall of Fame right after the kick, so it is not beat to hell and back for 30 minutes by an equipment manager,” said McAfee on The Pat McAfee Show.

In American football, a safety is scored when any of the following conditions occur: The ball carrier is tackled or forced out of bounds in his own end zone. The ball becomes dead in the end zone, with the exception of an incomplete forward pass, and the defending team is responsible for it being there.

The lowest possible score is 0-0 and has been achieved 73 times, though the most recent scoreless tie came on Nov. 7, 1943.

What is the lowest NFL score ever? ›

5 teams are tied for the fewest points in a win, with 2 points. The first three are the Chicago Bears on September 18, 1938, the Green Bay Packers on October 16, 1932 and the Frankford Yellow Jackets on November 29, 1928.

Among the non-viable outcomes are 1-1, 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, and 7-1. Five to 1 is impossible because it can only occur after a field goal and a conventional safety while 7 to 1 is also impossible because a team can only get to 7 after scoring a touchdown by successfully kicking a PAT.

Within the area five yards beyond the line of scrimmage, a defensive player may chuck an eligible receiver in front of him. The defender is allowed to maintain continuous and unbroken contact within the five-yard zone, so long as the receiver has not moved beyond a point that is even with the defender.

In American football, a field goal is scored by kicking the ball through the uprights past the touchback area on each side of the 50-yard line (the two lines that mark each end zone).

The NFL voted to move kickoffs back by five yards during the 1974 season in order to decrease the number of touchbacks. The 35-yard line was the official placement for all kickoffs for 20 years, until 1994, when the NFL voted to move the ball back another five yards to the 30-yard line.

It is a free sprint that keeps them in shape for the next kickoff. Most importantly... Intimidation.

Some coaches use it to remind players not to put too much weight on their heels. A third, and large, group of coaches actually do believe that players should work on their toes.

In the NFL, offensive linemen are only allowed to go one yard downfield when blocking on a pass play. In college, they are allowed to go three yards down field. The further the offensive line can go downfield, the more it tricks the defense during play action and run-pass option plays.

In 1889, the provision requiring the ball to actually be touched to the ground was removed. A touchdown was now scored by possessing the ball beyond the goal line.

Where is the Extra Point Kicked From? The extra point is taken from the 15-yard line in the NFL and the two-yard line in NCAA football. However, the actual distance of the extra point kick is 33 yards from the holder to the goal posts in the NFL and 20 yards in college football.

What is the longest field goal in the NFL? ›

Longest NFL field goal: Broncos placekicker Matt Prater connects on a 64-yard field goal at the end of the first half on December 8, 2013.

Beginning in 2022, both teams will have the opportunity to possess the ball in overtime in the postseason. If the team that possesses the ball first does not score on its initial possession or if the score is tied after each team has had the opportunity to possess the ball, the next score will win the game.

In 2011, the league voted to move kickoffs up from the 30-yard line to the 35. The idea behind that move to reduce the number of kicks that got returned in favor of more touchbacks. That rule change also cut down the running start that players on the coverage team could take to five yards.

The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering 40 yards (36.576 m). It is primarily run to evaluate the speed and acceleration of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL Draft but also for collegiate recruiting.

Why Is It Called The Red Zone In Football? The red zone, or the red area as it's called, is named for its relation to danger. The red zone for the defense means that the offense is close to scoring points. This area inside the 20-yard line is where the offense converts the highest-scoring touchdowns or field goals.

It is one of the oddities of American football that a team can score 2, 3, 4, 5 or even 222 points in a game, but never 1.

Drop kicks are also mandatory to restart play from the 20 metre line after an unsuccessful penalty goal attempt goes dead or into touch-in-goal and to score a drop goal (sometimes known as a field goal) in open play, which is worth one point.

The only time a 1 point safety can occur is when the offense on an extra point or two-point conversion attempt gets tackled in their own end zone. This is commonly known as conversion safety or one-point safety.

Field Goal: 3 points.

What's the difference between a touchback and a safety? ›

On one hand you have a touchback -- the team with the football gets an offensive possession started at their own 25-yard line. On the other hand, a safety -- the team with the football not only loses possession of the football altogether, but the opposite team scores 2 points.

In an attempt to reduce the frequency of kick returns—and by extension cut down on injuries—the NFL decided in the offseason to put the ball on the 25-yard line after a touchback. The rationale, of course, was that the extra five yards might cause returners to gamble less often on kicks that go into the end zone.

In American football, if a team attempting an extra point or two-point conversion (officially known in the rulebooks as a try) scores what would normally be a safety, that attempting team is awarded one point. This is commonly known as a conversion safety or one-point safety.

In gridiron football, a two-point conversion or two-point convert is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point conversion immediately after it scores a touchdown.

We found that on average, the final digits of football scores do not distribute themselves evenly - a score ending in 2 or 5 is much rarer than a score ending in 7 or 0, for example.

A safety in football is when the offense commits a foul in their end zone, fumbles the ball out of their end zone, or is tackled in their end zone. The result of safety is 2 points. This article will show you what safety is in football and why they're important in scoring.

TOUCHBACK? A whopping 26 of 28 Super Bowls since 1994 have not featured a touchback on the opening kickoff. That's a 92.9% hit rate.

A field goal cannot be scored on a punt kick. By contrast, the now very rarely attempted drop kick can be used to score either field goals or extra points in both American and Canadian football.

If that spot is in the end zone, the result of the play is a touchback, even if the ball is not on, above, or beyond the goal line.

The backdrop: The NFL moved extra points back by 13 yards in 2015 (two-yard line to 15-yard line), turning what had been a sure thing (99.3% success rate in 2014) into much less of one (94.2% a year later).

What yard line is the PAT kicked from? ›

In American football, extra point or PAT is the act of lining up to attempt a field goal from a point off the opponent`s 2-yard line immediately after a touchdown. If the kick goes through the posts, the team receives 1 point. In high school, middle school, and youth soccer, teams try their PAT from the 3-yard line.

Field goals were devalued to four points in 1904, and then to the modern three points in 1909. The touchdown was changed to six points in 1912 in American football; the Canadian game followed suit in 1956.